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Clint opened his front door with a sigh of relief. "Finally!" He grinned at the woman standing on his front porch, a large pair of sunglasses almost entirely covering her face. She grimaced back, the baby on her hip removing his fingers from his mouth to smile cautiously at Clint.
"It was getting weird in here," he continued, shooting a dark look behind him, "that British guy is a freak. Also, where have you been? You've made the birthday boy late to his own party." Clint winked at the baby, who had grown so much over the last few months.
Maddie removed her sunglasses and threw them in the direction of her car. "We had a…thing." She hedged slowly. "Don't worry about it. Yes, he's a giant freak, which is why I like him. Can I come inside now?" She readjusted the baby on her hip, and Clint made a face, though he did step out of the way.
"Ugh, I guess." He teased. "Everyone's in the back." Clint followed Maddie as she easily navigated his hallways.
Although she hadn't been by in nearly a year, she had lived there for months.
Maddie reached Clint's back porch, and the second the group of men seated around Clint's patio table saw her, they all stood, the man with the dark curls and flashing blue eyes striding forward and reaching for the baby, who happily switched hands.
"Sherlock," Maddie greeted. "Nice to see you. How was the flight?"
"Tedious." He said curtly, focusing his attention on the baby.
Maddie smiled tiredly at the other two men, frowning slightly after a moment. "Where's Dean?" She asked crossly.
"Careful," Sherlock teased. "Your preferences are showing."
"I'm not going to hide it, Sherlock," Maddie rolled her eyes, letting herself be pushed into a chair by the british man. "He's my favorite."
"Nice to see you too." Sam rolled his eyes and sat back down, and Maddie shot him a grin. Cas, the other man on the porch, shot her a wounded look.
"I thought I was your favorite?" He asked sadly, and Maddie shoved him.
"You're my best friend." She argued. "That's different…but much better."
"Wait a second." Clint joined everyone at the table. "If the other Winchester is your favorite and that guys your best friend, where do I fall on the Maddie's preference scale?"
"Yeah," Sherlock said slowly, his nose scrunching up as he allowed Orie to tug on his hair. "I am also interested in where I stand."
"First things first," Maddie leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Where's Dean?"
"He got stuck in a meeting," Sam explained with a smirk. "That's what happens when you're the boss. He'll be here as soon as he can."
Maddie made a face. "Fine. While we wait, Cas and Sherlock are tied for best friend, Sam is the lowest at brother of my favorite, Dean, is obviously my favorite and a rung higher than Cas and Sherlock, Clint still outranks Dean as my annoying adopted big brother slash uncle thing, and Bucky outranks everyone.
"As what?" Sam asked, not at all bothered by where he stood.
"He's just…Bucky," Maddie shrugged. "Bucky beats everyone…except for Laura."
"What about me?" Laura appeared, her son on her hip, a wide smile on her face. "I thought it was you!" She pulled Maddie into a large hug, and Maddie returned it after a long moment.
"You're my number one," Maddie explained, "and thusly outrank everyone in this room."
"Oh." Laura sat down with a smile. "I'm honored." She handed off her kid to Clint, and turned to Maddie. "So? How's the job?"
"Well." Maddie shot Sherlock a smirk. "My boss is certainly better than the last guy," She admitted, and Sherlock snorted.
"Your last boss tried to blackmail you and your friends," Sherlock pointed out. "Anyone is better than that."
"True." Maddie grinned.
Sam and Cas shared a confused look. They hadn't heard THAT story. But before Sam could ask, the sliding door slid open and Bucky tumbled out, his hair still ridiculously long, but his smile more genuine than it had been before. Maddie stood immediately and was wrapping her arms around his neck before the others knew what was happening.
Bucky, for his part, returned the surprise hug immediately. "Mads! What's up!"
"I don't want to talk about it," Maddie muttered as she pulled away. "It was just…a weird morning. And no, I'm not going to tell you what I was doing."
"Alright." Bucky agreed immediately. "Hey Clint. Mrs. Clint."
"Laura." Laura corrected with an eyeroll.
"Winchester." Bucky nodded at Sam. "Cas." Bucky shot Maddie a look. "Who's the other guy?"
"Sherlock Holmes, the stray that followed me back from London." Maddie introduced.
Sherlock glared at Maddie. "Your sense of humor is tasteless and backwards."
"Thank you." Maddie beamed.
"I like this guy." Bucky spoke up, holding out his hand to shake.
After a moment, Sherlock stiffly held out his own hand. Orion, once Bucky was closer, held out his hands, and Bucky grinned and scooped the baby into his arms.
"So we're just waiting on your favorite then?" Bucky took the seat in between Sherlock and Clint, leaving one seat open, the seat in between Sam and Maddie. Maddie nodded.
"What have you been up to?" Clint turned to Bucky. "Seen your bestie yet?"
"Nope." Bucky shook his head cheerfully, holding up his metal arm so Orie could hit it. "I'm avoiding spangles at all costs right now."
"So how are you spending your time then?" Laura asked. "You can't very well spend too much time in public, what with you being a criminal and all."
"The Winter Soldier?" Sherlock interrupted the conversation abruptly, shooting Maddie a look. She nodded happily.
"We need to talk about how you make friends," He said seriously, before turning back to Bucky. "I apologize for interrupting. Please continue."
"Right." Bucky grinned. "Well, you know, Spangles new best friend is surprisingly enough, a very good finder."
"Damn Hufflepuff," Maddie muttered.
"So I've been doing my best to avoid getting found, by both the good guys and the bad guys, I might add, working on regaining my memory, Oh!" Bucky snapped his fingers, a sly grin growing on his face. "I've ALSO been doing some light reading…"
Maddie groaned suddenly, and Bucky's sly grin morphed into a smirk.
"You can read?" Clint raised an eyebrow. "Color me surprised."
"Stuff it, Barton, of course I can read. Especially when I know the author." Bucky turned to Maddie who was grimacing.
"Author?" Laura followed bucky's gaze. "Maddie? You finally published that book?"
"You can write?" Clint turned wide eyes onto Maddie.
"Stuff it, Barton," Maddie snapped. "Of course I can write." Bucky and Maddie leaned over Laura, and Clint to fist bump. "And yes, I may or may not have published a thing or two under a very sophisticated fake name."
"Really? Laura Norder? Justin Sane? Those are sophisticated?"
Maddie straightened, smiling over at the back door, where Dean, still in his navy blue uniform, was joining the rest of the group on the back porch.
"Laura Norder? Laura I get, it's a fabulous name," Laura teased. "But the rest of it,"
"Law and Order," Clint clapped his hands. "That's good! And the other one, Justin Sane? Just – Insane! You're a child," Clint chastised, but he couldn't get rid of his grin.
Maddie shrugged. "What can I say? Ridiculous names for a couple of ridiculous books. Hey Baby." She tilted her head up, and Dean obligingly planted a kiss on one cheek before moving to the empty seat. "Have I told you recently how sexy you are?"
Dean grinned. "Not recently," he admitted, leaning over to whisper something in Maddie's ear, which had her snickering.
Clint looked over at his wife, arms crossing. "Why don't you ever say that to me?" He asked a little crossly. Laura snickered.
"I'll call you sexy when you look like that," She pointed at Dean, and Clint's eyes narrowed. Then he sighed. "Fair enough."
"Can we go back to you being an author?" Sam asked after a moment. "I haven't read them myself, but the Sane Novels are a three book series, and two of them are already out in stores. And from what I've heard, they're amazing." Sam tilted his head. "You wrote them?"
"They're not that good," Maddie tried. "And also, yes. I wrote them."
"Those are the ones about this prison under the ocean, where supposedly the most dangerous of criminals are held, but you find out that the people being detained actually used to be superheroes who saved the world, before the government deemed them too dangerous and threw them away, and the new president is going to open the prison for visitors, like some sort of freak museum, but actually, he can't, not until he turns the heroes into legitimate monsters, and the government starts experimenting on them, and,"
"Cas!" Maddie interrupted. "It's not that exciting."
But Cas was shaking his head. "It's so good," He beamed. "I'm waiting for the third installment because I HAVE to find out if Grant, who escaped in book one to find his best friends son, to help him fight the government, then found out his friend was a part of the government in book two, escapes his friends sons clutches to go back and save his friends before they get turned into monsters."
"Sounds familiar," Clint said after a moment.
"I may or may not have played with your reality a bit." She admitted. "In my old world, we call it fanfiction.
"The Norder Novels, are a supernatural series," Bucky spoke up helpfully, winking at Sam. "Novels that are eerily accurate when describing creatures and actual events."
"I helped with those." Dean smiled and rested his arm on the back of Maddie's chair. "Oh, chill out, Sammy," He rolled his eyes. "It's not another Edlund situation," He promised. "There's just enough fiction in them to make us unrecognizable."
Sam shook his head. "If you say so," He said doubtfully to Dean, though he smiled at Maddie. "If Dean okays them, I'm sure they're amazing."
"They're wildly famous among young adults," Laura perused, "But I've read one or two of them, and I enjoyed them myself."
"Even at your advanced age?" Maddie teased, and Laura shoved her. Maddie stood from the table reaching for her son. "Anyway, can we stop talking about my wild success with novel writing and get to the cake and presents?"
"Yes." Dean stood as well. "Cake first, presents after."
"Alright." Maddie smirked. "The cop has spoken."
It was hours later, after the cakes, after the presents, after more interrogations about Maddie's novels and after Orie had been passed around so much that he eventually passed out on Dean's shoulder, with Clint's kids in bed and a beer in every hand, that Clint brought up the first serious question of the night.
"So, you've been in Seattle for almost five months now, the longest you've been anywhere since you first belly flopped onto this planet. You work part time at a newspaper and are a part time novelist. Your son is one years old and your life is starting to look actually normal." Clint took a long swallow from his beer. "Have you finally found what you've wanted?"
Maddie, leaning against Dean's shoulder, wrinkled her nose. "I mean; I guess?" She shrugged. "I do tend to work regular hours, I have friends, I pay the bills and my kids growing like a weed. Not to mention my super-hot cop boyfriend whose in Seattle more often than he's not," Dean smiled and rubbed Maddie's arm in acknowledgment. "I didn't realize it until just now, but since the move, there have been no bodies, no murders, no strange creatures trying to kill me, no bad guys trying to blackmail me. My life has been pretty…normal."
"You hate it." Bucky said after a moment.
"No!" Maddie's response was immediate, but not nearly as confident as it should've been. "I just, I have to get used to it. I'm just not used to it all yet, which'll take some time."
"Mmmm." Clint said disbelievingly.
"I'll just have to get used to it," Maddie said after a moment. "Because this is my life now: Normal. Besides," She chuckled, setting her beer down on the table. "There's literally nothing else that could happen to me that hasn't already happened to me."
Maddie sighed and leaned back against Dean and did her best to accept the idea of "normal."
But with Dean holding her son and his solid warmth behind her, with her friends laughing and chuckling around her, it wasn't that hard of an idea to accept.
Normal might not be what Maddie was used to, but it was a welcome change.
Unfortunately, the welcome change wasn't going to last as long as Maddie would've liked.
THIS IS THE END...heheheh
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~CLC~
